Question

What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?

Answer 1

Hint: "My Mother at Sixty-Six" is a poem about the poet's love relationship with her mother when she was sixty-six years old. The storey reflects the author's mother's advancing years and her fear of being separated from her. It exemplifies the sweetness of a mother-daughter relationship.

Complete answer:
Last Friday morning, the poet was travelling from her parents' home to the Cochin airport. Her mother sat across from her at the table. At the time, she was 66 years old. The old lady was comfortably sleeping. Her mouth was still open. Her face was aged and her skin was pale. The colour was an ashy grey. It seemed dead as if it had been a corpse. Her heart ached as she saw her mother's dead and fading face. The elderly lady looked engrossed in her thoughts. The poet's attention shifted away from her mother to the window.

The poet's closing words of confidence and her smiles stand in sharp contrast to the childhood's old familiar anguish or anxiety. Her smiles and phrases are a calculated attempt to conceal her true sentiments. The parting words, "See you soon, Amma," reassure the old lady, whose "ashen visage" resembles that of a corpse. Similarly, her constant smiles are an attempt to mask the pain and terror she feels within.

Note: Her Mother at Sixty-six is about growing older and the dread of loss and separation that comes with it. The poetess is heartbroken as she realises her mother's ageing and feels the pains of separation at the prospect of losing her. Her mother's youth and attractiveness, which she feels she has lost, are also things she craves for.